Kansas City's John Buck, bottom, tags Oakland's Mark Ellis, who tried to score on Jason Kendall's fly ball in the seventh inning. The Royals won, 2-1, Monday in Oakland, Calif.

Oakland, Calif. ? John Buck broke up a scoreless game with a two-run homer in the ninth inning against Justin Duchscherer, and the Kansas City Royals won consecutive games for just the third time this season, beating the Oakland Athletics, 2-1, on Monday night.

For the second time in six days, Oakland’s Dan Haren and Kansas City’s Gil Meche pitched well against each other, with neither getting a decision. And just like last week in Kansas City, a late home run against Duchscherer (3-3) decided the game.

“It will be nice to face a guy with a different name than Haren my next start,” Meche said. “He’s making pitches where we’re just not getting hits off them. That’s two starts in a row we’ve been back-to-back with quick innings.”

Duchscherer came on after Haren held the Royals scoreless through eight innings and gave up a one-out single to Alex Gordon. Gordon stole second before Buck hit a drive over the fence in right-center for his sixth homer of the season. Duchscherer allowed a tiebreaking homer to Mike Sweeney in the eighth inning Wednesday when Oakland fell, 3-2, to the Royals.

Meche pitched seven scoreless innings, Jimmy Gobble (2-1) escaped a jam in the eighth, and Joakim Soria pitched the ninth for his seventh save in nine chances. The A’s had plenty of chances against the Royals, but went 1-for-13 with runners in scoring position.

Pinch-hitter Shannon Stewart hit a two-out RBI single in the ninth before Soria struck out Travis Buck to end the game.

Haren allowed four hits and walked four in eight scoreless innings, striking out eight to lower his ERA to an AL-best 1.64. Meche is third in the league with a 1.91 ERA after allowing seven hits and two walks in seven innings.

Meche maintained his perfect ERA in four road starts, having not allowed an earned run in 27 innings away from Kansas City. But he has managed only one win in those games, having gotten little support from his teammates.

“He was the reason we were still in that ballgame,” Buck said. “It could have gotten out of hand because there were guys in scoring position almost every inning and he just pitched.”

Meche even controlled Jack Cust, who had homered in four straight games and hit six in seven games since making his debut with the A’s on May 6. Cust walked in the second, grounded into a double play to end the fourth and was called out on strikes with two on to end the sixth. Cust struck out in the ninth against Soria.